The Potter Predicament
by Serinity46
Summary: After the events of Journey's End, the Doctor would have to see the fan, Sharada Storm, again, only he's not sure he wants her to come with him. And what’s with the weird notes and disappearing understudies in 22nd century London? 3rd Sharada fic.
1. I was standing

_Shining like a diamond, rolling with the dice, Standing on the ledge, I show the wind how to fly…_

Price Change. That's another name for 'tired as hell'. July 6, 2008, just past 3:30am, and Sharada Storm was currently in the midst of her graveyard Price Change shift at the grocery store which she worked at. As a cashier…where she'd found that many cashiers also have to do the nut hours known as 'Price Change' and hang up a bunch of new price labels on products that are going on/off sale. But she didn't mind it _that_ much, and at least she wasn't in freezing-ass Dairy anymore, and the music was sometimes good.

_When the world gets in my face, I say, Have A Nice Day…_

While trying to spot some random brand of chips she'd never even heard of, she giggled at the lyrics that played out on the speakers throughout the store, it was so her, wasn't it? Her job, anyways…the world's in my face, sometimes doing things that annoy the utter crap out of a new cashier like me, but I've still got to tell them to 'have a nice day' after I finish ringing through their food.

* * *

The Doctor, as he stood near the controls, still drenched by the rain that was pouring outside in Chiswick, spotted something shining in the corner of the console room… it was Donna's, he remembered, with a pitted feeling. Or part of something of Donna's, some necklace that had broken who knows how long ago and lay forgotten by the stairs, the gold string draping on the metallic flooring and the single jewel shining like a diamond in the greenish light.

He should probably take it back to her, shouldn't he, The Doctor though, dully, as he saw the light glimmer off of the icy stone, though he wondered if she'd still want it anyways, as he could tell the clasp was broken and, if he remembered the first time he'd seen her wear it, on a jungle of a planet near Polaris, it had had about three other gems, which had since fallen off. Still, he thought he should.

Heading over to the stairs towards the diamond-like jewel, it occurred to him that that was part of a song, the lyrics 'shining like a diamond'…yes, hadn't he and Donna accidentally ran into Bon Jovi once in 1982? That was the second time he'd seen her wear the necklace…and that was when the other charms had fallen off, he remembered, an image of the necklace getting snagged and breaking as they were running through a fence from a horde of bear-like aliens in Boston coming to mind.

_Shining like a diamond, rolling with the dice,  
Standing on the ledge, I show the wind how to fly.  
When the world gets in my face,  
I say…_

Oh, shit no. No, that wasn't the next lyric, but the Doctor suddenly realized something with that…'Have A Nice Day'… who said "Have a nice day"? People who worked in shops, that's who. And who worked in a shop? Well, Rose did once, but not her… a cashier. A fan. Sharada Storm.

He had actually not thought at all about Sharada since she left the TARDIS not long before he got a call from Martha at UNIT about the Sontarans…well, he'd been busy, hadn't he, and Sharada was honestly quite fine with or without him, there was no need to. Except now, because it was sometime in the early morning of July 6, 2008, and he had absolutely no clue whether Sharada knew that she couldn't mention anything to Donna yet or not.

She wasn't stupid, he knew if she knew then she wouldn't… but then, she _was_ Sharada, the girl who could see a plot in everything, and sometimes, also see a way through the plots. In short, a writer. She wasn't going to try her fanfic logic, was she? He wondered for a sudden worried second.

The Doctor sighed, staring back at the console, his wet hair dripping into his face. For once, he didn't actually want to see Sharada Storm… _because_ she knew about everything.

* * *

The floor buffers some several isles over were annoying her, mainly because, as Sharada reached up high to tear off a longer pricing tag on a bag of Tostitos Scoops and replace it with a shorter once, they were making it hard for her to hear the music, which she was enjoying a _lot_, singing along slightly and being all dramatic and bouncy as she hung new price stickers, since no one else was in isle #5 to see her.

Of _course_ she occasionally thought of the finale…ok, she _repeatedly_ was thinking of Journey's End, but not always while there was a song she liked on. But she wasn't upset, exactly. Just sort of… bittersweet, maybe.

_When the world keeps trying, to drag me down, I've gotta raise my hands, gonna stand my ground. Well I say, Have A Nice Day… _

Where the fuck are 'Tostitos Enchilada'? Sharada wondered, scanning around with her dark green eyes for the product that matched the tag on the top of the pile in her hand. There they are…

She bent to a kneel on the floor behind a large stocking cart pilled high with boxes of groceries to hang the new price, and remove the old one, on the bottommost shelf just below that brand and flavor of corn chips. She'd just put up the new price when she turned to get up, and saw it… the familiar pair of cream converse visible through the gap in-between the bottom of the cart and the linoleum floor, attached to an equally familiar brown pinstripe.

"Doctor?" She said, more of a statement than a question, as she stood up to see the whole of him, standing on the other side of the high-piled cart. The first thing she noticed was that he was drenching wet, and with the same expression as he'd looked at the end of the finale. "Oh." She said in a slightly solemn realization. "So what're you doing here?"

"So, you know, right? About Donna, about how you can't-" The Doctor began to say. He'd have to spoil it for Sharada even if she hadn't gotten around to seeing the finale yet. For a second, he wasn't sure if she had, because of the way she was acting completely normal before she'd seen him.

"Yeah, I know." She said, nodding slightly, in a sad, but quietly strong way. "It just sucks though, that she doesn't get to remember how awesome she is. Cuz everyone else knows… but she has no idea, and she can't ever know."

"And, now's why I came here even though I thought you probably _did_ know," The Doctor said in one very fast breath, then looked seriously to Sharada, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Because you're determined, creative, and clever, and maybe even above all that, you care. So whatever ideas are stringing together in your head, you _can't_ just go trying them out just because it could work in a story."

"Yeah, because any idea I _might_,_ maybe _come up with's going to automatically be no good," Sharada said, unusually testily. "And of course I'm completely stupid enough just to go ringing her up… Anyways, it doesn't matter, you know I won't." She sighed, not really wanting to get into anything about it, and looked back to the Doctor.

"Good. You know, I don't think you would, it was just that… oh, you know." He said to her. "And I can't risk it if you did and it didn't work out right and Donna started to remember, because she'd…" He trailed off.

"I know. I know this stuff just as much as you do." Sharada reminded him, which was maybe the wrong thing to do, but at least she hoped it would make him stop thinking she'd accidentally do something stupid. "But I was wondering, though, do you think she will remember sometime? Like randomly, maybe she'd be at a shoe store and see a pair of Converse or something, and that'd, like, trigger something?" Sharada asked, curiously.

The Doctor shrugged; it could, or it couldn't, but most likely it wouldn't do anything, he figured. Things like this were one of the reasons he _didn't_ want to see Sharada; he'd've much rather just gone off on his own, or maybe with someone new who didn't know every little thing that happened nearly as well as he did… but it wasn't like he was going to stay for long, or that he was going to invite her to come with him, he just had to be sure she knew. There was something else though, that the Doctor wondered about Sharada's world. Because it both was and wasn't his world, in a way.

"You know when the Daleks invade Earth… or the Cybermen, or when the Atmos systems all went off… does all of that stuff still happen with your world? Did you see the planets and Daleks in the sky, too, or was it just all only in the episode for you lot?" He asked her.

"No, it doesn't." She shook her head, which made her low side ponytail swish around slightly. She didn't totally understand the way they were separate, but both existing, either. "But it's not really like a parallel world, is it? It's kind of, I dunno…like two realities existing in the same area, maybe? The 'fan' world, and the 'Doctor' world. But there's gaps, aren't there? They do collide a bit, sometimes… if we're lucky."

"Right, if we're lucky," He repeated, then looked away for a moment, back in the direction of where he'd parked the TARDIS, someplace in the storage area, behind the meat and bulk sections a few rows over. Those floor buffers really were annoying, and no wonder Sharada hadn't heard the sound of the TARDIS materializing over their loud hum. "Well, I've said everything I was going to say, I really should be going," He said, turning away from the cashier/price change girl.

"Going where?" Sharada asked, that Ginny-Luna expression through her body, knowing and determined.

"Anywhere," He shrugged, but caught her look, "And before you say anything, I'd really just rather-"

"Well you're not." She said, still in the same look, this time with more of a forceful tone, which, nomatter how much Sharada looked like, or could imitate, Hermione, was quite unusual of her to actually be any kind of bossy. "You say that every time after you lose someone, and I don't care if I am just going to be another 'just one trip' rebound… I'm coming with you."

The Doctor looked at her, the fan and now grocery store worker who was quite conveniently doing a shift that allowed her to wear regular streetclothes (that of, at the moment, light blue jeans, a grey hoodie jacket, a low cut green 'Kiss Me, I _could_ be Irish' t-shirt, and black skate-ish sneakers), but then shook his head.

"No," He said, though he couldn't come up with a huge reason of why she shouldn't, especially as she had before, "You're too-"

"Too what? Because I wasn't 'too' anything not to come with you the first time." She called him on. Because it wasn't that she desperately needed him in her life, she was fine; her job was maybe slightly shit at times, but it wasn't bad, and she had plenty of things she wanted to do in her future, she could do a whole lot of things, really… but… he needed someone, and why not her? For now, anyways, until he found someone better. Plus, she was a tourist at heart.

"But you _know_ what it's like, how it can get… you'd actually still want to?" The Doctor said, a bit surprised by her, actually.

"Course I do. Because it's like what Hermione said, in the end of Half-Blood Prince," Sharada began, the quote _'You said to us once before, that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time, haven't we?_' coming to mind. "Because you asked me once if I wanted to go home, or keep traveling with you for a few more stops… I'm still in it for a few more stops."

"Okay," He said to Sharada. This was not his plan, to take her on, but why not? Maybe it wouldn't really be that bad, that she knew about stuff, because she got it. And really, why was he going to deny someone like her who both wanted to, and could, travel with him at the moment. "If that's what you want, then, I guess you can come."

"Great," She smiled, as she set her remaining stack of pricing stickers and tags down on the closest shelf, coming over closer to the Doctor. She wasn't squeeing, just smiling in a quiet confidence that was so very Sharada Storm.

Just as they'd turned to go around the large trolley full of boxes of products, she looked over the rain-drenched Time Lord.

"I just remembered, I should get my purse," Sharada said suddenly, because she'd nearly forgotten, "It's got my phone and everything in it. I'll be fast, it's just upstairs…"

She gave him a look that said 'unless you meet some new, more awesome, person in the time that it takes me to run up and get it, _don't_ even think of leaving without me', which he returned with a nod that meant he wouldn't, as Sharada hurried off to grab it.

* * *

"Did you do that on purpose?" The Doctor asked Sharada, gesturing at the color and leatherishness of her bag. It was exactly the same as Rose's royal blue jacket.

"Yeah," She nodded. "Well I love it anyways, but yeah, kind of bought it for the color, too. Oh, did you know the floors in my kitchen are almost the same color as Donna's hair? Ooh, it's Desire, by U2, I _love_ this song!"

_Lover, I'm off the streets_

_I'm gonna go where the bright lights_

_And the big city meet_

_With a red guitar, on fire_

_Desire_

_She's the candle burnin' in my room_

_Yeah I'm the needle_

_The needle and spoon_

_Over the counter, with a shotgun_

_Pretty soon, everybody's got one_

_I'm in a fever, when I'm beside her_

_Desire_

_Desire…_

_She's the dollars_

_She's my protection_

_Yeah, she's the promise_

_In the year of election_

_Sister I can't let you go_

_Like a preacher steelin' hearts at a travellin' show…_

_Desire._

Yeah, as they turned through the door between the meat and seafood section, in the direction of the TARDIS to set off for some random time and place, they would never forget the awesomeness of Donna Noble. Because they both knew her, even if she could never know them, and perhaps the Doctor was wrong in thinking that it wasn't a good idea to be traveling with someone else who knew Donna.

* * *

A/N: So, I'm writing this (The Potter Predicament) pretty much simultaneously with Rift Rides. Potter Predicament is NOT NOT NOT going to be a Harry Potter crossover. But it is going to involve them being mistaken for the newest understudies for a musical based on GOF … and, of course, the Doctor & Sharada generally is kind of a 'Potter Predicament'.

Another big arse disclaimer to say that, of course, the lyrics to Bon Jovi's Have A Nice Day and U2's Desire are not mine. Neither is Doctor Who, since if it were mine, Donna would still be able to remember everything… and I would be cast as some part in it which allows me to snog either Ten or Jack (or both) XD

Desire came to mind for the sole fact that I was listening to my iTunes while writing that part near the end of the chapter, and the song came on it, and I thought the 'dollars' was 'goddess', and for some random reason it reminded me of Donna.


	2. You were there

Some several hours later (he'd really have to stop picking Sharada up in the early hours of the morning, the Doctor thought, because she always was tired at that point and just went off and slept pretty soon after coming onboard), both the Doctor and Sharada were back in the console room after being in other parts of the TARDIS.

She had such mixed feelings about this, when she woke up, both the same excitement as she'd had the first time on the TARDIS, the way she felt whenever she was traveling to anyplace, really, even normal spots like Seattle, and some slightly gutted feel of about what had happened in the end of Journey's End. Though, as she entered into the console room and saw the Doctor, by the controals, spotting the Canadian, it was the first travel!squee feeling that overtook her. After all, what not?

"So… Where're we going to?" Sharada asked the Doctor, her right hand brushing back the chunk of chin-length light brown hair which fell into her face as the rest of her thick layers of curly light brown waves were tied up in a high loose flopped bun of a thing, as she looked at him from across the console.

The Doctor took a glance at the controls for a moment, then over to Sharada.

"How d'you feel about…" The Doctor began to think up someplace to show her as he darted around to the other side, coming to throw a switch near to where Sharada was standing. He noticed that, as she watched him, she was singing something he didn't recognise under her breath… something Jewel-ish with the words 'let's breathe stardust into our lungs'…what on earth was it with Sharada and music? Oh, he had the perfect spot now, it was totally stupid, but he knew she'd love it. It was a bit the same but the polar opposite of where he'd taken Martha on her first trip, now that he thought of it… "London, 2159!"

"_Yes_, London!" Sharada exclaimed loudly, giving the air a kind of approving punch as the TARDIS began to whir into action… and then quickly placing both hands on the rim of the console in order to keep upright as the TARDIS began its rocky (though Sharada had to admit, she did quite like it) journey to their destination.

* * *

"Why're there pirates?" Was the first thing that Sharada asked as they stepped out of the TARDIS, onto a street. Just ahead of them, she could see a small group of people in their twenties wearing all sorts of captain's hats and really authentic looking period clothes. "Did we end up in…no, that's a flying car…"

In awe, she watched as what looked like a high-tech red Mustang zoomed across the intersection a block away, gliding through the air as it did so.

"The Thames!" Sharada exclaimed excitedly, pronouncing the name of the river wrong (with the 'Th' sound included, and the 'a' said not quite right, like 'Th_ay_mes'), as she looked at it. Oh my God, it was beautiful… just like in the movies she'd seen it in. And it was sunset, too, which made it even more gorgeous.

"You mean the Thames?" The Doctor said, pronouncing it correctly, like 'Tahms'. It wasn't often he did take on non-Brits, though he couldn't think of why.

"I'm Canadian… I'm allowed to pronounce your stuff wrong," Sharada joked, looking around at the other sites she could see from where they stood.

"_My_ stuff?" The Doctor glanced at her as they began to walk.

"Yeah, you've got a British accent…" She said casually, wondering, for the first time, what was up with that, anyways… like why weren't the Time Lords… Australian, or Italian, or something?

"Huh… it looks like we're off by a few months…" The Doctor said, looking at something past Sharada, which she turned to see.

"What's off?" She asked him, as she saw a sign which read 'future home of _Goblet_: _The Musical_'. "What's 'Goblet'?"

"Huge Potter fan, and you can't tell what that is?" The Doctor pointed incredulously to the small sign in the large theater window.

At this, Sharada spurt with laughter, gawking in squee at the little lightning bolt that the 'l' was formed into.

"They _actually_ made the HP stuff into plays?!" She exclaimed, surprised for one that Harry Potter was still going strong 150-odd years from her time, "When did they do _that_? Ooh, Bet they'd still be rehearsing in there right now…"

"Oh, I bet they would," The Doctor lit as he realized this, "I was going to show you the full finished show, but, fancy spying on the rehearsal instead?"

"Yeah, I'd love it," Sharada beamed, then looked to the glass double doors in front of them, holding out her hand dramatically. "Alohamora?"

That obviously, expectedly, did absolutely nothing to open the doors, but they weren't locked, so the two of them just walked inside as if it were open.

They'd just gotten into the lobby, when a man, who looked like he might be a director, approached them, looking a weird expression of relief to see them. Why would he be relieved that two strangers were coming to have a look at the rehearsal?

"Oh, good, finally, you're here. Can't tell you what a nightmare it is to get anybody nowadays… we just finally got a new Ginny understudy in thismorning, but couldn't find a single person to replace Katie or Dan after they'd gone, and Katie was the third bloody understudy for the part, too." The man said to Sharada and the Doctor, "Phil O'Neil, by the way, Director," the portly man introduced himself as, "But your agent probably told you all of that, right? Who're you with, again?"

"We're sort of independent, heard about the spots in the paper… John Smith and Sharada Storm," The Doctor told Phil, "So what's this about the understudies?"

"All quit, nine of 'em, at different times… three Hermiones, one Ginny, two Viktors, a Hagrid, a Barty, and a Trelawney." Phill said, "Bit weird though, they all just left these weird notes and never showed up again."

"You sure they quit? Like those weren't _ransom_ notes or anything?" Sharada asked, wary.

"Nope, all in their own writing, no demands for anything." Phil shrugged, "Anyway, whatever got into those nuts don't matter right now, you two need to get the script and all've that, c'mon."

"I'm soooo taking the script back with me after we leave," Sharada said quietly to the Doctor as they followed Phil out of the plush lobby and down a carpeted flight of stairs. "Are we actually going to do this? Being understudies for… I'm guessing… Hermione Granger and Barty Crouch Jr.?"

"Don't see why not," The Doctor said back to Sharada, quiet enough so that Phil couldn't hear, "It does give us an excuse to be on set and backstage… because that is a bit fishy about all _nine_ of them quitting like that."

* * *

"Now, it's not likely that either of you'll get on stage for the real show," Phil was telling Sharada and the Doctor backstage, just after finding them a pair of scripts, "But, you do have to know the roles as well as the actual Hermione and Barty actress and actor do… you both can _do_ the parts, right? You aren't some random talentless people who think you've come here for laugh? I never usually do hire people who ain't got an agent, but… show's in a bloody week, I'm desperate."

"No, we can act them just fine," Sharada assured. She wasn't actually ever in drama during high school, to be honest, because she was always a bit nervous about performing in front of other people... but it wasn't as if she couldn't act, of course she could if she wanted to. Maybe not _good_, but she could give it an effort.

"Right, well, we were just in the middle of rehearsing the Yule Ball bit right now… so Hermione understudy with me to the stage, Barty understudy just do…whatever… till we get to your parts." Phil instructed them.

'Whatever'… yes, the Doctor could definitely do 'whatever' while Phil and everyone else was busy with Sharada, such as trying to find those 'weird notes'.

* * *

A/N: Another song lyric I do no own... Doin' Fine by Jewel. Hmm... I'm hoping that Sharada doesn't seem too Mary-Sue ish, I have to say that when she's singing random stuff though, it isn't one of those 'omg, you can sing, you're gonna be a famous star' stories, cuz she's as decent as anybody else, but American Idol/Maria/Rock Star worthy? Er... no. She just likes music, that's it. But yeah, I was writing while listening to my iTunes again last night, and that song (the Jewel one) came on and the lyric '_So come on, baby, Let's just have fun, Let's breathe stardust into our lungs, Let's drive too fast, Let's go too far, When our hearts bleed it lets us know we are-alive, And that we are-doin' fine. We lay down, Look at the sky, From upside down, There's nobody we have 2 be, __ Let's live fast and see where it leads..._' made me think of Doctor Who... not sure which part of Who, but like, different parts, like some of him & Rose, some of him & Martha, and some of him & Donna.


	3. Two worlds collided

"And I don't care if, he can't pronounce my name…at least he asked me, to the Yule Ball, which is more then you," Sharada, seated on prop staircase, sung the lines off of her script as the actress who was actually playing Hermione, an Arabella chick, who's hair was more brown than Sharada's and who's face fit the role just slightly more than Sharada did, had done just before (though Ara did not, of course, need to glance at the script as she'd done this several times before in the past month). There was something ridiculously familiar about the melody of the song, Sharada thought, "So I think you know the answer. Ask me, before someone else does!"

She had to admit… she was just a bit good at this whole dramatic thing, Sharada thought with a squeeing smile. Actually she didn't know if she was, but she was having fun with it anyways.

"Understudy Ron…Alec…," The director, Phil, called out to the stage, causing the red haired guy around the same age as Sharada to turn around to look at him, "You should be fully off the stage by the time the Hermione starts to sing, 'k?"

The Ron, Alec, nodded.

"Alright, the Harrys, the dragon workers, and all the Gryffindors, on stage for the First Task number in five," Phil said announced, then turned off to talk with one of the lighting crew.

"I love this," Sharada said happily, getting up as she turned towards Alec, who was coming back to the center of the stage, the pair having been finished rehearsing the Hermione/Ron Yule Ball bicker, "Don't tell Phil, but I've never actually done this before, it was all my friends who were into Drama in High School, not me, I was always in art, and also choir in my last year, but yeah, I'm really loving this."

"Really? Huh…would've thought you were maybe in some chorus once," Alec looked to Sharada, because truthfully she wasn't the best actress in the world, but she was still very performey, like she could've done backup for someone a couple times, "So how're you liking it, working here? You're like, what, the fourth Hermione understudy now?"

"Well I have done tiny little roles in my friends stuff for film class, I loved that," She remembered fondly, always having been extraordinarily happy whenever they'd asked her to be in them a couple times. She got a bit of the royal screw over for anything she'd ever auditioned for, though, like getting stuck with the tiniest parts in Elementary School Plays and never having gotten a single solo that she auditioned for in choir in Grade 12… and she wasn't even going to mention the Idol fiasco (her High School's version of American Idol, in which she'd repeatedly forgotten the lyrics to the song she sung for the audition, even though apparently she had sung it well), which really just thought was funny now. "What's with that anyways? Why's it so hard to get someone to stay on for these parts… the pay's not really bad, is it? Are they getting offers in some other play that's better?"

"Nope, it's just as good as anywhere else," Alec shrugged, "For an understudy part… and it's only us and the thing based off Pirates of the Caribbean 8 that're rehearsing in this district."

"So _that's_ why there's pirates!" Sharada exclaimed high-pitchedly, remembering the band of swashbucklers she'd seen on the streets earlier. "There's a Pirates of the Caribbean _8_?! _Have_ to see that sometime, I _love_ the first three."

"I think they're having the same problem we are with people sticking around for the understudy roles… d'you hear that the parents of the understudy for Elizabeth Swann that quit have gone to the cops? Yeah, they can't find her or somthin'." Alec told Sharada, shrugging it off, but looking kind of concerned at the same time.

"And what about anyone else? Has anyone seen _them_ since they left? The Hermiones and Krums and stuff?" Sharada asked, curiously, the thought of kidnap entering her mind, not for the first time.

Alec thought for a moment.

"I haven't, but it's not like I would either, I mean I didn't know them that much," He shrugged. "But they _could_ be Missing Persons, dunno…"

From the other direction, the guy who played the understudy for Viktor Krum, Pax, came over to where Sharada and Alec were.

"I don't know why you're so worked up about this understudy thing," The Viktor said, speaking with a slight Russian accent, "Their quitting is our gain."

"Yeah, but what if they didn't just quit?" Sharada countered, looking interested, "I mean it's not really just a gain if they've been, like, kidnapped or murdered or something."

"Murder and kidnap? You have been watching too much TV," Pax said to Sharada, shaking his head slightly in disbelief, "They quit, I heard they left notes. Probably got a better deal, no big deal."

"Maybe… but he said that there _weren't _any better deals around right now," She persisted, looking to Alec. "And what did the notes say? Has anyone seen them?"

"I do not know what you care, we are actors, if anything has gone on, it is the police's job to care," Pax said again, which make Sharada's eyes flicker up in a roll of annoyance.

"What if it's alien?" Sharada said, a certain lit up, inquisitive and half-joking expression on her face.

"Alien? Then I would say you have _definitely_ been watching too much TV," Pax said, with a laugh. "That old Torchwood show, right? I've seen re-runs, it's good."

"Harrys, dragon workers, and all Gryffindors to the stage, please!" They heard Phil call out, just then, which forced Pax to go head off someplace else off stage and Sharada and Alec to go join the rest of the bunch being called to rehearse the dance sequence for when Harry was up in the air flying around the Hungarian Horntail.

"I don't know how he can _not_ believe that aliens exist… " Alec said to Sharada, as they walked over to Phil, "I mean, alien stuff's been happening for over a century, I just did a term paper for my History professor on that thing where the Earth got moved across the Universe back in 2008… where's that guy been living, in a cave? What, they skipped over the great Cybermen invasion of 2006 in Social Studies classes in Russia?"

* * *

Meanwhile, the Doctor, who's parts, the Barty Crouch Jr. scenes, apparently weren't being rehearsed until much later, found himself in the previously locked (but easily unlocked via sonic screwdriver), main office of the direction and production of the Goblet Of Fire play.

_An office_, the Doctor thought, morosely, glancing down at the disheveled paperwork atop a table, _if Donna were here she'd know exactly where to look, and what to be looking for that I'd've missed_ _seeing_.

Still, the Doctor, with a pitted sigh, took a look over to the other side of the room, where he'd spotted a thick beige folder labeled 'Cast'.

Walking out of the right stage wing and back to the backstage area while the others took to their choreography, Pax, the dark haired Russian understudying for the Bulgarian Quidditch star, headed off in the direction of the dressing room, intent on getting a smoke from the pack in his jacket that he'd left in there earlier that day.

* * *

_So that new Hermione must be one hell of a sci-fi or crime scene investigation show fan_, Pax though to himself, as he pushed open the door to the main dressing room, thinking she was worrying too much about this, but wondering just a slight part if the girl had a point.

"But those things like Torchwood are made up, that is nuts," Pax muttered aloud, taking out the carton in the pocket of his black track jacket. _If it were real, she would not make a bad assistant or investigator on those shows, though_, he thought with a laugh, as he took out a singe fag and replaced the carton back into the jacket pocket.

"Ooh, I can haz moar Krum?" A voice from behind Pax, sort of curious and child-like, rang out, making him turn.

* * *

"And that's a wrap!" Phil called out, as the group which included both Sharada and the newest Ginny understudy, both of whom had never rehearsed this scene before or knew the dance steps prior to now (it showed), finished doing the choreography as best they could. "Everyone but the Cedrics and Harrys, take twenty."

"Does that mean we can go for twenty minutes?" Sharada asked the flame haired Ginny understudy, Elsie, who was a few years younger than herself, about sixteen-ish.

Elsie nodded, then hurried off herself up the isle in theater seating to the direction of the lobby, while Sharada exited the stage to the backstage area, looking for the Doctor, who she spotted easily, as he'd just returned from having a look around the office.

"You know there's people from _both_ the fan world and your world here?" Sharada said, the second she came up to him, "Yeah, cuz this one guy, Pax, was saying that I've probably watched too much Torchwood, but this other one, Alec, he was talking about how he'd written some paper on the stuff that just happened for you, the Earth moving and all that, like it was real history… it's like, two worlds collided, since I met you. Oh, the understudies for the Pirates of the Caribbean 8 play have been going missing, too. So what'd you find out?"

"That there is absolutely no connection between any of the missing understudies… except," He took out a cast bio, for one Linda Faber, who played understudy to Trelawney before 'quitting', from one of his pockets and showed it to Sharada, indicating a small list of television shows and movie that she liked, "That they're all fans."


	4. And they could never

"Fans?" Sharada repeated, taking a look at the woman's profile. Sure enough, mixed in with a bunch of TV shows from the future that Sharada hadn't heard about, were the words 'Doctor Who'. "Huh. Why would they just want fans? Do they _know_ they're just taking fans? But not everyone in the 'fan' world _is_ a fan, there's loads of people in the world who've never even heard of you…"

"What I didn't find was one of those notes," The Doctor continued, "Where would he keep something like that? It'd be like a letter of resignation… ugh, Donna would know, she-"

"I _know_," Sharada said, almost exasperatedly. She knew her too, after all, and she'd watched her on the show, Sharada knew that Donna would have probably noticed something that no one else would have or known where to look in an office, but for God's _sake_ she didn't want another Shakespeare Code 'Rose would know' scene going on here. "I know she would've. So what _would've_ she though of, then?" Sharada tried, looking to Doctor, a sort of driven patience about her, "Cuz all I'm thinking is that if you couldn't find them in the office, then he could've threw them out, but…"

The Doctor's eyes met hers for a moment, and caught her by an extraordinary amount of surprise as he hugged her at this.

"Yeah… that was kind of just to get you to say 'out'," He grinned at her weird accent. Of course he _did_ miss his supertemp an immense load, and it was completely true that Donna would probably know, but he also realized that it was just a bit unfair to Martha that he'd done that same kind of thing once… and of course he also knew that Sharada practically knew that episode by heart… which meant he couldn't resist.

"No wonder she used to hit you," Sharada remarked with a roll of her eyes. "So you _knew_ where they'd be?"

"Not exactly… but I had a fair guess they could be," The Doctor shrugged, still a bit impressed by her, nevertheless, both because she had thought of that, and because of how she didn't get _completely_ annoyed by that 'Donna would know' thing and tried to turn it around into something useful, "But you are a bit brilliant, you know that?"

"I know," Sharada nodded, seeing as she had bloody got it right, even if he had thought that was what she was going to say. "So where are they?"

"Back at the office?" He said, his hand slipping into hers as they began a sprint back the way he'd came and towards the small play production office.

This time, the door to Phil's office was unlocked, and the two of them entered it easily without him having to sonically unlock the lock.

There was not much of a place, it looked like, to dispose of the letters from the ex-understudies, other than the brimming white metal wastepaper bucket beside a desk on the opposite side of the table from the door.

"Now I really feel like some undercover agent, like 99 in Get Smart," Sharada remarked, as they bent by the basket of discarded papers, "I loved that show, I used to watch the re-runs on TV Land when I was younger, I was like _obsessed_…"

"Really? You? Obsessed with something?" The Doctor looked to her in mock surprise.

"I still have to see the movie, have you seen that?" She continued, "Ooh, I should be, like, keeping watch, shouldn't I? That's what they always do in those things…"

"You don't have to, I found it." The Doctor said to her, unearthing a note from one of the Hermione understudies, the Katie that Phil had mentioned when they first arrived. "Weird thing though, it's all in chatspeak, look."

Sharada, who was standing up at that point with an eye on the door, took a look at the paper as the Doctor stood up as well.

"That's like a bad fanfic," She laughed, as she tried to decipher what the note said, which, sadly, she actually could do. "Like the lolcat letter of resignation! Jeez, _someone's_ a bad speller… you think she wrote it like this as a joke?"

Sharada looked to the Doctor, as he too stared at the short letter. The main gist of what the note said was very simple, not really giving all too much explanation about why she'd quit other than 'SOMETHIN CAME UP' and a 'DOAN BOTHR CALLIN BOUT IT'.

"_You don't know me, you don't even care, oh yeah…she said, you don't know me, you don't wear my chains…she said I think I'll go to Boston, I think I'll start over_…" Sharada was singing absently as she looked again at the hand printed note, then noticed for a second, stopping singing it. "Oh that was _Boston_, by Augustana!"

"What was?" The Doctor looked at her, wondering what that was about.

"Oh, nothing, just this part of one of the songs I had to sing for Hermione, it was kind of to the tune of Boston," Sharada shrugged, knowing finally why the melody of the end of the thing she'd sung after the Ron/Hermione Yule Ball spat had sounded familiar.

"Boston, eh? I've been to Boston, just the once, with Donna, we-" The Doctor began to tell her, in one of those points where he was glad he _could_ mention stuff about Donna and Sharada would be interested and not think anything of it, unlike someone new might've, but was cut off by the sound of the knob on the door turning and what sounded to be Phil's annoyed mutters.

As the door was swung forward, the Doctor and Sharada dove down behind the desk, blocking themselves from view as they crouched closely behind the cramped space of the small wooden desk, listening to what it was that Phil seemed so distressed about.

"Not a-bloody-gain, I swear I thought he seemed happy enough with the role, but oh no, another quit," Phil sighed, then dialed some numbers into a phone, waiting for an answer.

Sharada and the Doctor's eyes met… this was the tenth missing understudy, not even counting however many had 'quit' in the POTC play.

"Hello? Yeah, it's me again," Phil was saying into the phone, "Look, do you have anybody who'd like to understudy for the role of Viktor Krum? I'm not looking for brilliant at this point… just any dark-haired male between seventeen and twenty two, yeah?"

With that, and the click of a phone call being ended, the disgruntled director left the room, shutting, and locking, the door behind him.

"It is fans, then, cuz Pax was a fan, of Torchwood, anyways," Sharada said, as they got up and moved in the direction of the door, thinking of the Russian, "But Pax _wouldn't _quit… he kept saying how I shouldn't be worrying about the disappearances and that their quitting was our gain. Well, that _proves_ that they aren't quitting on their own will."

As the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it easily at the door lock, Sharada glanced back over to Phil's desk, where another handwritten piece of letter-sized paper lay.

It was the exact same, word for word, misspelling for mispelling, except that it bore Pax's name and scrawl rather than Katie's name and neat printing.

* * *

"And where were you two?" Phil asked, slightly aggravated, to the Doctor and Sharada, upon their return to the theater seating area, which they were just a bit late for. "If there's one thing I desperately don't need, it's late actors… I said twenty, that means be back in twenty, not whenever you damned well feel like it, especially not _now_. I was half worried you two'd decided to quit like the others! Anyways, we're doing the part right after Harry comes back with Cedric's body right now, so John we need you on stage, Sharada just do… whatever… for a bit."

"Right, my turn to do 'whatever'… let's see what I can find." Sharada smiled, a slightly mischievous gleam to her eyes, as Phil turned his back on the two of them and headed back over to his spot in front of the stage. There was something just naturally investigative about her, even before she'd become a fan of Doctor Who last September.

As the Doctor moved to reluctantly go towards the stage to rehearse some of the Barty Crouch Jr. stuff in his undercover role as an understudy, a thought occurred to him about Sharada going to look around for stuff, and he rooted into a pocket inside of his suit, turning back to her.

"Here, take this," He said, tossing her the sonic screwdriver, "Till I'm finished."

Surprised, and more than just a bit squeefull, Sharada caught it and stared between it and at him for a second.

"For doors and stuff, if you need it. And it's already on the right setting," He told her, turning away again to hurry over to where Phil was waiting.

"Thanks," She said to him, shoving the device into the right front pocket of her light blue jeans and heading off in the opposite direction, having a very good thought to purposely find a locked door while she was looking around just for the sake of getting to try it out.

* * *

A/N, disclaimer, whatever you want to call it: Let's play 'song lyrics I do not own'…this time up, it's Boston by Augustana. Also, of course, the chapter titles, which come from INXS's 'Never Tear Us Apart'. And I think he would give a fan companion the sonic for a bit, because of how Attack of the Graske played out w/ the fan having the powers of the sonic in their remote hehe. I think I've got a feeling that during Rift Rides (which takes place previously to this story) he might've had her use it once too? Dunno, I haven't written most of that fic yet, so maybe, maybe not.


	5. Tear us apart

She'd let her hair down by now, which, as it was volumous and wavy naturally, and even more so after it had just been up, gave her slightly the look, especially with how the layers of golden light brown poufed out in certain spots around her face, of a lion on the prowl. Part of Sharada wanted badly to watch the Doctor act out the role of Barty Crouch Jr., especially since, even though he'd not seen her Hermione rehearsal, he'd still seen her do a Hermione impression once before, but she'd never seen him do Barty Crouch. Unless that _was_ the Doctor, in the Goblet of Fire movie, she still slightly wondered. But whatever, she could get him to show her some other time, right now she had to find…er… well she wasn't totally sure what she was looking _for_, other than something suspicious.

With the Doctor's sonic screwdriver held in Sharada's pocket, she wondered once she was back backstage where to go first. It would be the perfect opportunity to look in the office again, while Phil was busy, but they'd just been there and she thought that the Doctor must've already found whatever there was to find in the production & direction office while she was in rehearsal. She thought back to Pax's disappearance… she'd just _been_ with him less than half an hour before he'd vanished, and the note was found someplace in the building. Maybe she should check out wherever it was that these notes were being found?

Of course, she didn't _know_ where the note was found, so she had to find that out. Close ahead, she saw the man who played the lead Voldemort (she couldn't quite remember what his name was, actually, having not had rehearsed any scenes with him like she had Pax and Alec) exiting from a green door marked 'costume/dressing'.

"Hey," Sharada approached him, friendlily (_god, it felt weird to be approaching 'Voldemort' friendlily_, she thought), "So, I heard the understudy for Krum, Pax,… he left some note saying he quit?"

The Voldemort actor shrugged.

"Suppose so," He said, nonchalantly.

"D'you know where the note was found?" Sharada asked, trying to sound casual, but probably coming off a lot more interrogating then she meant to.

"Dunno," the actor shrugged again, this time, his small blue eyes narrowing in suspicion how much she was taking interest in this, "What are you, some kind of PI-Sarah Jane-X files person?"

"No," Sharada lied, through suppressing laughter at the Sarah Jane mention…she wondered, though… "You mean Sarah Jane the _person_, or the character in the show?"

"The…" the Voldemort actor began to say, then quickly clamped his hand over the pocket of his jeans, "I have to go, phone call…"

He quickly walked off, his hand rooting into his left pocket. Suspicious at how quickly that had came up after such a simple question of if he thought of Sarah Jane Smith as a real live historical person or a fictional character, Sharada entered into the costume room, but kept watching the actor through the crack in the door that she had not shut all the way.

He was on the tall side, about the same height as the Doctor, she supposed, and, while the actor neither looked like Ralph Fiennes from the Harry Potter films, nor the character of Voldemort himself, he was balding, and with somewhat pointed features that would translate well enough into The Dark Lord with enough makeup. As Sharada watched him walk away, the man, thinking that the girl was no longer looking, suddenly looked as if he'd completely forgotten about his 'phone call', as he began to chat with who Sharada recognized as the main Rita Skeeter and the understudy for Wormtail.

"Liar…" She whispered, to no one really, thinking this was just a bit strange, "The hell's he hiding, anyways?"

She couldn't hear what they were saying from here, but the Rita was now pointing to something in the script and the Voldemort was shaking his head, while the Wormtail understudy glanced at his watch. A thought struck her to trail the Voldemort, at some point.

_And why was he coming from the costume room? It's not a dress rehearsal_, she wondered, as she glanced backwards at the racks of wizarding robes and other gear behind her. Taken by sudden awe at all of the incredibly authentic Hogwarts robes and Death Eater masks, Sharada's fangirl self distractedly started to look through the stuff, having a strong desire to nick a few pieces… _well, it's not like they'd notice_, she thought, trying on one of the many yellow and black Hufflepuff scarves that were in a box to her right. She had one of these herself, actually.

There was a door, she spotted on the right-hand wall, near to a Hagrid coat, that she guessed lead to someplace else out of this room. Still wearing the Hufflepuff scarf around her neck, hanging over part of her low-cut shamrock green 'Kiss Me, I _could_ be Irish' t-shirt, she smiled and her right hand came to rest on the sonic screwdriver that protruded slightly out of her right front pocket of her light blue jeans. She was actually hoping that it was locked.

Getting to it, after slightly tripping over (but catching herself before actually falling, much in an OOTP movie Tonks way) a small cardboard box of wands that were on the floor, Sharada found, starting to push the door open easily, that she had no such luck. It was a lockless swinging door, like the one before it, with a large curving silver-colored metal handle to push or pull upon.

_Why'd he lend it to me, if nothing here's hardly locked_? Sharada wondered, disappointed that she hadn't used it yet, while taking a look at what seemed to just be a coatroom, filled with the performers' jackets and bags and such things. _Huh… well that explains why the Voldemort guy would be back here_.

"Mew"

She whirred around, surprised to be hearing a cat's meow. Her eyes came upon one of those hairless cats, sitting calmly atop a black duffle bag as if he lived here.

"Hey kitty," She said to the strange-looking cat, and wondering for the first time how the hell people _did_ pet hairless cats. "You belong to someone?"

The cat said nothing, but just stared at her, blinking its large amber eyes.

"Do people pet you?" She asked, her hand hovering a little bit by his fleshy skin. It squicked her slightly, but she supposed he was cute... ish… maybe. The cat reminded her for a bit both of that episode of Friends where Rachel got a hairless cat and of the cat in Austin Powers. "I've never seen a hairless cat before in real- owfuck! You evil hairless cat!"

Taken by surprise, Sharada jerked backwards, a long scratch running down her right forearm. The cat simply acted very much as if he hadn't just dug his claws into her skin and looked at her with the same plain expression as he had before. She was leaving this room, before the freaking psycho cat attacked her again.

"Aww… did I hurt teh hooman?'" She heard the cat say mockingly, causing her to turn in surprise.

"You talk?" She looked at it, agape, "Cat's don't talk… you're alien! You're some alien cat, right?!"

The cat nodded its head…or heads? Why was she suddenly so ridiculously drowsy? Glancing at the gashes down her arm, she wasn't bleeding _that_ much… _Oh my god, there's something in its claws…_

"I can has Hermione nao?" The cat said again, as Sharada fought to keep conscious.

_Lolcat_. _The notes were in lolcat!_ She realized suddenly. Panicky, she started off in the direction of the door… she had to get back to the Doctor, or at least to _somebody_, before she fell asleep.

"U r nearly undr, u will rite the nowt soon," The cat said simply.

_Under… that's why the notes are in everybody's own writing…_ She thought rapidly, knowing that she only had probably not too long until whatever was in the cat's claws caused her to be possessed.

Nearly under was right… she could barely even think anymore, let alone move, as the hairless cat's hypnotic amber gaze fell upon her.

"_IT'S CATS!_" She yelled, as loudly as she could, in hopes that someone, anyone, would hear, "Space cats…Doctor…"

Sharada faded off, losing all awareness of anything.


	6. I told you

The Doctor was not half bad at the whole acting thing, and he could definitely do Barty at least as well as Sharada could do Hermione, but he wasn't quite enjoying this as much as she was, he found it sort of an inconvenience, actually, that he had to be doing this right now, just as they were maybe onto something.

He wondered why it was _just_ fans, and _just_ understudies that were going missing, as he watched on as the understudy for Snape was getting feedback from Phil on how the Veritiserum scene had gone.

"You look kinda familiar," The Ginny understudy, Elsie, who wasn't even in this scene, but standing by the stage, watching, said to the Doctor, "Do I know you from somewhere? Like a TV commercial, or the news…?"

"You could've," The Doctor shrugged, "Where is it you think you know me from?"

"Dunno, just… somewhere. Like, you're not famous, you just look a bit familiar, that's all," Elsie looked the Doctor up and down with her eyes, a striking black-rimmed light green with the slightest smallest tinge of hazel, standing out dramatically against her black mascara. He wasn't sure where, but he knew he'd seen eyes like that twice before. "Like someone I maybe saw in the paper once. John Smith though, that's a bit've a common name, innit… I bet you get that a lot. Elsie's a bit common, too, but not as bad as yours."

The Doctor noticed, as she spoke, that there was a strong hint of a Welsh accent to Elsie's voice, mixed with something else that he couldn't quite place, something English and slightly familiar.

"IT'S CATS!"

"The 'ell was that?" Elsie looked for the source of the sudden distant yell, her thick ginger hair, obvious for the role of Ginny, whipping around.

Apparently, nobody aside from Elsie and the Doctor had heard the noise, as not one had even looked away from what they were doing.

"Sharada…most likely, dunno, sounded like her, didn't it?" The Doctor looked in the direction of her yell, a look of worry beginning to grow on his face.

"The new Hermione? Why's she yelling about cats?" Elsie asked, confused.

"No idea," The Doctor declared, then ran off in the direction of where he'd heard Sharada's shout coming from.

Elsie paused for a second, watching as the Doctor bolted, quickly turning the corner that lead to backstage, then, with a quick glance back at center stage, took off after him.

"Wait, John, I'm coming with you," She announced to him, once she was out of sight of the stage and seating area, and caught sight of the Doctor, who'd paused for a moment, as if deciding which way to go. "I was a bit bored back there, just standin' around, not doin' nothing… so what you looking for?"

The Doctor looked over to the Ginny understudy, who'd just joined him.

"My name's not really John…or John Smith," He told her, starting to move towards the nearest of the swinging green doors, the one marked 'costume/dressing', "It's the Doctor."

"Of what?" Elsie asked him.

"Of…well it's not really 'of' anything," He said, pushing the door open, "It's just…the Doctor."

"What…so that's your name, then? First name 'the', second name 'Doctor'?" Elsie's head sort of wavered as she said this, her eyebrows raised in amusement and skepticism. "And I thought celebrities' kids had it bad… who the hell were your parents to name you 'the Doctor', anyways?"

"It's a long story, that I really, really don't have time to get into," He sighed, glancing around the room filled with clothing and props for any sign of Sharada.

"So it's like a title, like 'The Flash'? Are you some kind of superhero?" Elsie asked him. "But when I want to call your name, can I call you 'the', though? Or is it just 'Doctor'?"

"It's just Doctor," He smiled, wondering if anyone had ever gotten so into the fact that he was called 'the Doctor'. "So, d'you have a last name, Elsie?"

"Yes… I'm one of those people who've got a real name, unlike you," Elsie grinned, as the Doctor opened the 2nd door in the room, still having found no sign of Sharada, "It's pretty common though, just Cooper, bet there's loads of other 'Elsie Coopers' in the world… Is that why your name's the Doctor? Cos it stands out?"

"Cooper? Are you at all possibly related to…" The Doctor began to ask, though he broke off from this thought the second his eyes caught hold of a scrap of something white on the ground. A note.

"Oh, _don't_ ask me who I'm related to," Elsie groaned, not taking any notice that he'd found something. "Though I would know, though… we had to do this rubbish assignment for Civics last term, this family tree thing that had to go back for like 150 years…"

The Doctor, meanwhile, had picked up the note and was looking at it.

"Oh, there is no _way_ that Sharada would write like this on purpose…" He said, musing, as he read the misspelled note saying that she'd quit. "She's a writer, she does fanfics a lot right now… maybe not the best at characterization all the time, but _this_ is like a note written by-"

The Doctor suddenly realized what 'it's cats' had meant.

"Cats!" He exclaimed, continuing, which surprised Elsie, "She _said_ it, didn't she, '_the lolcat letter of resignation_'! This is lolcat, pure lolcat! You couldn't get anymore lolcat if you'd used the lolcat translator! But what would cats want with a bunch of fan understudies?"

The Doctor looked to Elsie, who was kind of looking at him as if he were mental, but also kind of curious. Where on Earth was it that she'd seen him before?

"Well there's the play, Cats?" Elsie shrugged, coming up with the only thing she could think of that linked cats to musical theater.

"Elsie Cooper, you just saved the world…or something, anyways, maybe not the _world_…though there was one play that almost ended the world once," The Doctor shrugged, looking at the teenage redhead, who he finally recognized as having similar eyes to Gwen Cooper… which must be the side of her family that the Welsh part in her accent came from. He still wasn't sure about the other familiarities, though… there was something he felt he was missing about Elsie… something Sharada would most likely know in a second. "…I never was a cat person."

"So they're stealing people to force them into doing Cats?" Elsie asked, following the Doctor as he dashed back towards the door.

"Well, not _Cats_, why would they need fans for Cats? They could've just picked anybody," He told her, "But they need them for some other play, yeah."

"So that Sharada who the cats took, your friend or whatever she is," Elsie looked to the Doctor as they came through back into the first room, "She gonna be ok, right?"

"Oh yeah," The Doctor nodded, "She's got my sonic screwdriver with her, course she's gonna be ok."

* * *

"You were right, it is alien."

Waking up on something hard and cold, Sharada opened her eyes to find wherever she was was quite dark.

"Like something straight out of that Torchwood show, talking hairless cats…"

Her eyes landed upon, through the darkness, the dimly silhouetted source of the Russian accented voice sitting in a squatted position not far to her right.

"Pax," Sharada, pushing herself up off of the cold cement floor of wherever it was that she was now, immediately threw herself upon him, hugging the understudy that she barely knew, as if she didn't want to let go. "Where _are_ we?"

Pax shrugged.

"A prison cell?" He suggested, getting up as Sharada let go of him, and walking over to the iron bars that made up the wall near to the door of the place they were imprisoned in. "And what is this, by the way?"

Squinting through the darkness, she saw him hold up a distinct tubular object and, as she got up, Sharada's hand felt to her right jeans pocket and found it to be empty.

She just looked at him at first, with one of those kinds of offended looks of glaring disbelief that would have looked like acting on some people, but looked true, as she was the kind of person who made very expressionate facial expressions without even hardly realizing it. She'd done it quite a lot in school, both in university and in high school, if the teacher, or someone, was bashing something she liked.

"You took that out of my pocket?" She said, offended, to Pax, who currently held the Doctor's sonic screwdriver in his hand.

"You were asleep, it's not like you were using it. I thought it could help," Pax said, casually, "What is it, by the way?"

"The sonic screwdriver," She gritted in her best 'exasperated cashier' way, as she took it back from him, coming over to where the barred wall was, "And it's not even mine, it's the Doctor's."

"The Doctor? As in Doctor Who? So it is a replica of the one on the show?" Pax asked her, "I have never seen it, but I have heard he had a sonic screwdriver."

"It's not a replica, it's the real thing," Sharada smiled, optimistically, starting to look for the door of their cell, "And it's our way out of this place."

"Oh… so it is the real prop, that you bought on e-bay?" He asked again, skeptically.

"It's not a prop, it really works," She flicked it on for a second to show him, getting more than just a bit fed up with how, even with the fact that he _knew_ it was aliens who'd been stealing the understudies, he still thought of the world of Torchwood and Doctor Who as nothing but fiction.

"So it is a very well-made replica, then?" Pax said, just watching her as she was running her hand along the bars to try to find something gate-like in the darkness.

With a roll of her eyes, Sharada had located the gate and excitedly pointed the sonic screwdriver at what seemed to be the lock, flicking it on again, and witnessing the familiar blue glow and whirring hum. Hoping it was working, since she'd seen him do it a million times, but didn't really know what she was doing (though she would never for a second let Pax know that), Sharada gave the cell door a push. It came open, expectantly, and she looked to Pax in triumphant squee.

"That is a very, _very_ well-made replica." Pax affirmed, looking at the open door.


	7. That we could fly

"Come on, let's get out of here," Sharada, stepping through the opened door, looked back over to Pax, who followed her out.

"Has anyone ever told you that you have the strangest accent when you say 'out'?" Pax mentioned, conversationally.

"The Doctor… a lot." Sharada said, nodding, as she tried to see which way to go from here.

"The Doctor? You keep talking like you know him, as if he is a real person?" Pax looked to Sharada, curious, as they began to walk through the dark, brick-walled corridor.

"He is a real person," Sharada confirmed brightly, "There's sort of two worlds, like, realities or something… one where people like us live with him just being a character in a show, and the events that happen in the show being completely fiction, _but_ there's also the world that's in the show, the Doctor's world, with aliens and Torchwood and all of that, existing simultaneously in the same space as ours, and they can cross over at _any_ time, if you know where to look. A fan could come across the Doctor, like I did once, or someone from his world could come across Doctor Who fanfiction, like I think Donna did once. D'you get what I'm saying?"

"Yes, I think so. It is mad, but so are talking cats," Pax shrugged, "So there really is a Torchwood, then? I think I may try to find that, once we get out of here. Maybe they would be hiring?"

"Maybe," She smiled slightly, wondering what Torchwood would be like 150-ish years into the future… she guessed Jack would still be working there, though. "D'you where 'here' is, at all?"

Pax shook his head.

"I have been alone in the cell ever since getting here, no one has said a thing to me," He told her. "Why are we here, do you know?"

"No," She admitted, coming to a door in the narrow underground hallway, which she nearly ran into as she could barely see through the dark. Trying the door, she found it to be locked. She pointed the sonic screwdriver at the door for a moment, but then stopped once she noticed the texture of the door under her palm. "Oh."

"What?" Pax asked, wondering why she'd stopped and was acting so calm about the fact that she'd stopped trying to unlock it.

"It's wood," She told him, taking a step backwards from the door, "It doesn't unlock wood, for some reason,"

"So now what do we do?" He asked her, getting a vibe from the way she was standing and looking at the door that was a bit 'Charlies Angels'.

"Kick it open, of course," She said to him, as if it were everyday knowledge, just before doing so with a powerful swing of her leg.

* * *

"Oh… _now_ I know where I've seen you before," Elsie exclaimed suddenly to the Doctor, as they hurriedly neared the door which lead out of the large costume room, "The family tree project!"

Opening the green swinging door, the Doctor looked a sudden genuine mixture of shock and confusion, and turned to Elsie, mid-open.

"Your family tree?" He repeated, "I can't be in your family tree, how am _I_ in _your_ family tree?"

"You're _not_," Elsie giggled slightly, as they came through the door, "Don't get all worried that you owe someone alimony, there's no 'Doctor' _or_ 'John Smith' anywhere in my family tree, it's just that I was looking up the English side of the Cooper family for that project, and you're in this photo-"

Elsie was broken off her speech on where she'd seen the Doctor before by the appearance of Phil, who'd noticed by now that his Barty Crouch Jr. understudy had gone missing from the stage area, and looked quite livid.

* * *

"Awesome, I've never done that before," Sharada grinned accomplishedly, taking a look backwards at the door she'd just kicked open, though in a different style than she'd seen Donna do it, it was Sharada's own way of kicking things that looked a bit more show-ey due to her blue belt in a branch of martial arts that she'd been in during high school coupled with a past obsession with Charlie's Angels.

"How did you know it would not work on wood?" Pax asked her, curiously, as they walked quickly through the long dark cellar-like hallway on the other side of the door.

"It said it in Doctor Who once, and then Donna, being awesome, did what anyone would do and kicked open the door," Sharada told Pax, thoughts of Silence in the Library coming to mind, "Oh, I did _not_ just need to think of the Vashta Nerada," She winced, due to the fact that they were almost in pure darkness. Speaking of that episode, though…

"I've got an idea, once I know where we are," She said. Hell, if River could do it from across time and space…

"Is that light, up there?" Pax pointed upwards, to where a thin square frame of light was filtering in through what looked to be a trapdoor on the low ceiling about two or three feet above their heads.

"Yes!" Sharada squealed, reaching for it, which her hand could just touch. "Help me up to it," She told him.

Pushing the trapdoor, which was quite light, open, as Pax supported her weight, Sharada peered out into a properly lit up room of some sort. There was no one else in this room, she saw, as she climbed out.

"It's another coatroom," She told him, glancing around, as she in turn helped the Krum understudy climb up from above, "A different one, the walls are blue in here."

"So they are," Pax noted, once he too was through the trapdoor and into the room above. "But where are we? Another theater?"

"Maybe," Sharada guessed, coming to the door, which was brown, rather than the green ones of the theater where the Harry Potter production was taking place, "Do they all kinda have the same design around here?"

"How should I know? I have never worked in this district before," He said, shaking his head, though one look at the mountainous supply of swords, pirate frocks, and a few fake cannons in the room that they came into told him that they did.

"Oh, Alec said they were doing a Pirates play around here!" Sharada realized, "Hey, we're not really that far from where we were, then."

"What was that plan, you said, for when you know where we are?" Pax looked to Sharada, in curious expectance, since she seemed to be the one that knew everything.

"This," She said simply, her face in a look of concentration, thinking of what she wanted to get across, and hoping it would work.

* * *

"… Oh, I _knew_ I shouldn't have just hired someone off the street," Phil continued, starting to get into a tirade, after the Doctor had just told him what had been going on with the alien cats and the fan understudies being snatched. "Alien _cats_ have stolen my understudies? If that's not the most ridiculous-"

"I _know_ it's crazy, but he _does have a point_!" Elsie screeched suddenly at Phil, in defense of the Doctor, "Have you even _looked_ for the understudies at all? You don't care why they're missing, as long as you can get someone in to replace them!"

"And _you_ can be the first person to have a legitimate reason for quitting, due to being fired," Phil, taken aback by Elsie, sneered at her.

"Fired for _what_?" Elsie demanded, "Actually giving a damn about somethin' other than learnin' lines I probably won't be even gettin' to perform?"

"No one is getting fired here," The Doctor declared, exasperated at Phil's stubbornness to believe what was going on, though he thought he finally had perhaps placed the other person who Elsie might be distantly related to, "And whether you want to believe it or not, your understudies _are_ being taken by, yes, alien cats, _including_ my friend Sharada, so if you think this play is more important than finding out what's going on and getting her -them-," He corrected, "back, then you are _very_ mistaken."

"You should listen to the Doctor, he's telling the truth," Somebody from the crowd that was beginning to form, spoke up. "It's as good as my fault that the cats even know about the two worlds."

The Doctor turned to see the man he recognized as the one who played the lead Voldemort, Ed Barret, his profile had said. He continued to explain,

"Your Sharada, she is two worlds collided, as am I, but from the other side," Ed told the Doctor, "I came across your show one day, it was a different you, you in 150 years from now, but it was the same events that had just happened on Earth not too long ago, the invasion of the-"

"Don't," The Doctor said warningly, about what Ed was about to say about some invasion or another that he'd defeated in 150 years time, "Spoilers. But you were saying?"

"Right, well these cats, they can talk, and… and… other things," Ed suddenly shuddered, with a cringe that suggested he didn't want to go on, though he did, "They're hypnotic, they can make people do anything if their venom cuts through the skin,"

"That explains the notes," The Doctor noted, "How long does the effect last for?" He asked, concerned as he knew that Sharada, having written one of the notes, had been affected by it.

"Only an hour or so," Ed assured, "I have been scratched by them _many_ times, forced into giving up info about the two co-existing worlds, and who else may also know, and suit the roles they require. But I do not know what the cats are planning."

It was at that moment that the Doctor felt something that he'd felt before coming from one of his pockets, the sign of a message on his psychic paper. Swiftly, and taken by surprise, he pulled it out and glanced at it.

Meshed in with the light subconscious scrawl of lyrics to some song he couldn't recognize, some blabber about River Song and the Face of Boe, and an odd image he supposed had to do with Rose and Jack's first meeting, was a few lines of a message from Sharada. He'd never seen such a disorganized pile of random things that didn't belong accidentally thrown into one psychic paper message, he didn't think, though he had to admire that she'd done this, since it would've never occurred to him that she would.

"_Hairless_… now I know _exactly_ what they want with putting fan actors in a play." The Doctor, who'd been able to narrow down their species by what Sharada had said in her message, declared, just before rushing off in the direction of the strip outside, Elsie following him not far behind this time as well.


	8. Cause we all have wings

"So, you know those cats, well even though they're alien, they're not exactly mountain lions, are they, they're just kinda the size of normal housecats," Sharada was saying to Pax, as they came through the backstage area, after exiting from the costume room, "So how did they get us from the coat room to some underground tunnel system?"

"Why are you looking at me like _I_ should know that?" Pax asked, though that had occurred to him, too.

"Dunno, you're the one who wants to work for Torchwood," She shrugged, "You should be thinking of things like this."

"I have been, just not aloud," Pax said. "So you and the Doctor, you are to him a companion, are they called?"

She thought for a second, before answering.

"Guess so, for now, anyways," She said finally, "It wasn't really the best situation, that made him come to where I was working and cause me to basically force myself upon him. I don't think he even wanted me, at first, but I think he does like that I did come… maybe."

"And why would he not want you to come… because you are from the fan world? Or because you can be a know-it-all?" He asked Sharada, half joking, though he did think she quite embodied certain aspects of her role of Hermione at times, even if she didn't know that she was coming off that way.

"No, it's not that," She laughed slightly, "He completely wanted me around when I first met him, back when everything was good and he and Donna were still together…not _together_ together, just… together, traveling together, as friends, when they could."

"And why is she not?" Pax asked, assuming that this Donna was the same person that Sharada had mentioned about the wooden door thing before.

* * *

"You know that photo though, that I started mentioning," Elsie said to the Doctor, as she and him came through the glass double doors of the theater and out onto the cement sidewalk outside in mid 22nd century London, near to the Thames River. "It had to be about 150 years old, at least… how is that still _you_ in it? It can't be you… Are you, like, immortal or somethin'?"

"Near to, I'm a Time Lord, not exactly human," He said, looking up and down the street for the other theaters, "I also travel in time… which is probably why it was me in that photo-"

"You're not human?" Elsie looked the Doctor up and down. He _looked_ human enough. "So you're an alien? I'm talking to an alien? Nice. So those cats, where're they from, anyways? They from the same place as you're from?"

"Not even close," He grinned, because, of all places, the hairless cats were from _Mars_. Mars, he couldn't believe it actually, thinking back to when he first met Donna. And then his face fell suddenly, thinking of how he wished he could tell her about the Martian cats.

"What?" Elsie, noticing the change in his expression, from slightly ecstatic to somber in about three seconds, looked at him questioningly.

"Nothing," He said, unconvincingly, "I just… nothing. So where're the other theaters around here?" He asked Elsie.

"There's one that way," She pointed down the road.

* * *

Coming out of the glass double doors of the theater which held the upcoming Pirates play, Sharada's eyes laid on the familiar blue box that was parked just across the street from where they were now.

"The TARDIS!" She beamed, happy to let her emotions do a 180 after just having got into the whole 'why Donna isn't traveling with the Doctor now' thing with Pax, "Oh, I know where we are now! D'you know what the TARDIS is?"

"I do, it is the Doctor's ship," Pax said, "Though I have a feeling you would have told me everything about it if I'd said no."

"So the theater's that way," Sharada said, pointing up the street in the direction that she and the Doctor had walked after getting landing here. "Oh, I _love_ the Thames," She said, still unnoticingly pronouncing it wrong, "It looks so gorgeous with the sky like that too, it's like how the sky just went on for ever from my university I went to, which was pretty much up a mountain."

Sharada, though she was supposed to be getting back to the Doctor and dealing with the cats and all of that stuff, just stopped to look out at the moonlit Thames, the sky a rich royal blue that came just before being completely dark. Though her camera, she remembered, was still back home (well, it's not like she'd thought that the Doctor was going to show up during her shift at work!), she knew her phone had a camera on it…which was still in her purse… that was, regretfully, in the TARDIS.

"He needs to give me a key," Sharada said, glancing back at the TARDIS, "Do you think the sonic would unlock it? Ooh, wait, there was that snapping thing, too," She remembered, and tried, though nothing happened. "Probably only works for him."

Still looking at the Thames, and every other sight of London that she could see from here, Sharada had just began to continue on in the direction of the Potter play, when she was shook by her touristy gaze at some building across the water by a nudge from Pax, followed by a delighted call of "Elsie!" coming from the Russian.

* * *

Turning into the main street that ran along the Thames River, the Doctor recognized this as the same street that the TARDIS had landed in, and also where they'd seen the people in pirate costumes not long after arriving. And then, as he came slightly further down the sidewalk with Elsie, he spotted her, Sharada Storm, coming from the opposite direction, and looking awestruck at who-knows-what across the river. She was coupled with who the Doctor assumed must be the Viktor Krum understudy, Pax, who'd just given the sidetracked Canadian a nudge, causing her to look in the Doctor's direction and let out a shrill squeal of squee, the first of that noise that the Doctor had heard her make at all that day.

They both immediately bolted for each other, Sharada happy to see him whether she doubted he wanted her with him or not, and the Doctor ridiculously relieved to be seeing Sharada alright even if he did know that she was fine because of her message, connecting in a lasting hug which said everything, telling her that he most definitely _did _want her around, and from her side that she definitely _would_ be around.

"You know Elsie Cooper, the Ginny understudy just over there," The Doctor started to say to Sharada, still as immersed with her as she was with him, "Guess who she's distantly related to? I can't believe I didn't think of it straight off! It's really a bit obvious once you notice and-"

Sharada looked over to the red-haired partly Welsh girl, whose lips were currently locked with Pax's… _Elsie and Pax? Huh, who'd've guessed_… _well, they do make a nice couple, actually_, Sharada thought, with a feeling of happiness for them.

"Gwen and Donna?" Sharada, cutting him off, guessed, taking in Elsie's eyes which were like Gwen's, her hair which was the same color and thickness as Donna's, and her accent, which had tinges of them both. "And something to do with Lauren Cooper, I guess."

"Lauren Cooper?" The Doctor repeated, as he and Sharada broke off, "As in _Bovvered_, Lauren Cooper?"

"Yeah," Sharada nodded, "Her and Donna are somehow related, I think."

Elsie and Pax, who'd stopped making out for a second, looked over to the Doctor and Sharada.

"So, the cats...?" Elsie asked, expectantly, wondering what they were going to do about them, "And where are they from? You never said."

"Mars, they're from Mars," The Doctor said, which made Sharada, of course, think of the thing with Donna from Runaway Bride, and giggle slightly. "And first we need to find them… Sharada, Pax, how long was that tunnel you came from?"

"Less than a mile?" Pax answered, taking a guess. "And it was in that direction that we walked," He pointed back down the street, towards the POTC play's theater.

"So, taking people from the two theaters in the area, that would put their own rehearsal base right about…" The Doctor swiftly took his sonic screwdriver back from Sharada's pocket and held it pointing in the air, as if locating a signal with it and ran up the sidewalk, Sharada, Pax, and Elsie following, until stopping at a dilapidated-looking ex-department store, "Here!"

* * *

**A/N: Only one or two more chapters I think, yay. And then I need to finish Rift Rides (it's not really necessary to read that one to know what's going on in the story, i don't think, though maybe Hippie Daze would help about the refs to how Sharada already knew the Doctor and also knew Donna other than on the show). But there's going to be more Sharada stories after this, next one coming up's a Haunted House thingie, and then the Guatemala thing that I've been saying I'm going to do for ages, and I love my arc that I'm leading up to a fic or two after the Guatemala story, if you're paying very very close attention to a certain word that you're gonna see in the future stories, too, so yeah.  
**


	9. But some of us don't know why

"In there?" Sharada pointed, looking at the boarded up glass windows. The place looked like it hadn't been used for _anything_ for years.

"Yup," The Doctor confirmed, sonicing open the lock on the door and pulling it open.

"Like St. Mungoes," Sharada remarked casually, following in after him.

The interior of this part of the once-department store was very sparse, with a few random broken bits of clothing racks here and there, one leaning shop dummy that was missing both a hand and a leg (and which reminded Sharada eerily a great deal of the ones in Rose), and some scattered remnants of the leftover plywood and nails that had been used to board up the windows.

As they treaded through the sparse mess of the unused lower level, they came to an escalator, which, though it was no longer moving, still appeared to be in good condition, and the four of them, the Doctor, Sharada, Pax, and Elsie, began to go up it like a regular staircase, none of them talking incase the cats could hear them, since, at halfway up, they could definitely hear the voice of one of the hairless Martian cats.

"U will all taek the scene frum the top," A voice like the ones Sharada and Pax had heard earlier filtered down through the space. "Teh Elizabeth will act teh linez ov teh companion again."

"Yes, master," An unfamiliar female London-accented voice droned in a daze to the cat, followed by a chorus of about a dozen other voices of various ages, genders, and accents, though all with the same obedient robotic glaze to them.

Sharada, who was suddenly beginning to feel more and more out of it with each step up the stationary escalator, tugged suddenly on the Doctor's arm from his right side, a pang of worry in her lagoon green eyes as they met with his brown ones.

"The closer we're getting to them, the more I can feel them trying to possess me," She told him quietly, feeling panicky.

"They aren't possessing you, they're hypnotizing you," the Doctor said, because there was a difference between the two, to Sharada, quietly and close to her left ear, as he glanced down at the long scratch on her right forearm, which was no longer bleeding, but he knew it had to be sometime less than a hour since the cat had attacked her, "And you can fight it if you stay focused… I think."

"You _think_?" Sharada hissed, as she felt the Doctor's right hand fit assuringly into her left, which had been gripping to his arm, as they continued to walk up the long flight of steps to the second level, nearing the top, at where they could see three fleshy hairless housecat-sized Martian felines perched and observing the rehearsal that they'd ordered.

"Is that s'possed to be a Cyberman?" Sharada whispered, pointing to an actor in a shoddily made costume which she supposed remotely resembled a Cyberman… if someone was going off nothing other than the word 'silver' and 'robot'.

"I… _think_ it is," The Doctor looked at the assembled cast, which eerily appeared to be doing something to do with his adventures, much like the show, but nothing he quite recognized doing yet, "Can't tell what furry blue mop thing is, though… And an Ood, they've even got an Ood! At least I think it's an Ood, does that look like an Ood to you?" The Doctor motioned to a tall actor in makeshift Ood gear who was standing just offstage.

Suddenly clamping her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing aloud, Sharada watched as two people darted onstage, the male of them, waving around a thin, well-decorated silver flashlight, and the female looking in fake horror at the 'Cyberman' and weird blue mop creature. On the stage, the 'Ood' suddenly rushed to join the two who were portraying the Doctor, apparently, by the suit, the Tenth Doctor, and his wavy-haired dark blonde companion.

"Well they got that a bit wrong, I've never had an Ood traveling with me before… does that mean I _do_ have an Ood on the TARDIS in the future? An Oodpanion?" The Doctor remarked, watching the proceedings on the stage. He wasn't sure who the dark blonde was supposed to be… she looked a bit like Elizabeth Swann from Pirates of the Caribbean, with hair blonde, but too dark to be Rose, Astrid, or Jenny. And now she just spun a high kick to the 'Cyberman's head that knocked it down. "Can't wait to meet _her_."

"Verrrerr…vrreeerr…" Someone carrying what looked like an empty refrigerator box painted like the TARDIS walked onto the stage, mimicking the noise of the TARDIS appearing.

"This has to be the best low-budget Who _ever_," Sharada, amused in a good way by the wonderful cheaply made props and exaggerated acting, exclaimed quietly.

"Teh Earth peeps will find it gud den?" One of the three cats, seeming to come out of nowhere, spoke towards Sharada, the Doctor, Elsie, and Pax.

"It _is_ a bit amusing, and I mean, not a bad effort, for cats," The Doctor began, glancing to the stage and then back to the feline, who was now flanked with his other two equally-hairless compadres. "But is this whole thing based off of real events, future 'cannon', or just something made up like, well, a fanfic?"

"It unimportant," The cat said, blasély, "Teh events ov teh pulay itself r irrelevent."

"Well that's not very _helpful_, is it? Cause _I'd_ like to know who that 'companion' over there is supposed to be, if she's really someone I'm going to be meeting and traveling with," The Doctor went on, all of the three cats' amber eyes fixed upon him, "I mean, did you see that kick? That's impressive, I only know one other person who can kick quite that high."

Sharada, who may as well have been invisible to the cats once the Doctor had started talking to them, saw his eyes flash inconspicuously in her direction for a second. _Oh, for fuck's sake, that doesn't mean me, does it? _She thought, sort of intrigued, though.

"Don't quite know if that would really work on a Cyberman though," The Doctor continued to say to the cats, "You see-"

"Teh elements ov teh pulay do not rly mattr," The first cat interrupted the Doctor, "An Im tirin ov thees queshuns. We, teh Chats du Mars, only desire teh audience 4 r use."

"Of course it doesn't," The Doctor nodded, "You're still cats thought, and if I know anything about cats, it's that you lot, you're not big on the whole 'water' thing," The Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at a fixture on the ceiling of the room.

Before it could to anything to the sprinkler, though, the reason why the cats could bring the understudies down to the underground catacomb-like tunnels was known as all three of the felines suddenly morphed to a height of around six and a half feet, one of them fiercely swiping its large paw and knocking the sonic screwdriver out of the Doctor's hand.

As he, as well as Elsie, who was standing just behind him, scrambled to retrieve the device, one of the other two hairless cats abruptly dug its claws into Elsie's shoulder. She let out a yelp of pain and surprise, Pax rushing defensively to her side both to see if she's alright and to try to fend off the cat which had attacked her.

Sharada, who'd also scampered for the fallen sonic screwdriver, but from the other direction, found herself being blocked by the third of the Martian cats, it grabbing to her arms as the Doctor was shoved roughly against the wall behind him by the first cat. She saw what he'd been aiming to trigger… a sprinkler system. With Elsie falling unconscious by the Chats du Mars' hypnotic and sedative venom, Pax currently involved in a fierce brawl with the cat who had dug its claws into Elsie, and both the Doctor and Sharada herself being held off by the cats no matter what they tried, none of the could reach the sonic screwdriver.

The sprinklers… Sharada glanced to it through the bustle. Unless they changed something in the 150-ish years from the ones she'd almost hung a hanger of still-damp (due to the rubbish laundry room dryers) clothes off of to dry in her dorm before seeing the warning…

As the lanky, but muscular, Martian cat maintained its grip on her arms, she shrugged the black Sketchers sneaker on her right foot a bit loose with her other foot and let a kick fly at the sprinklers on the ceiling, thinking that it was a longshot that she got the aim right, but it was worth a shot… besides, where was that freak luck that came with being a companion, anyways?

From the ceiling, a steady shower of cold water began to spray in all directions, the cats recoiling and hissing as the water poured down and hit their bare skin seconds after the black skate-ish athletic shoe successfully connected with the sprinkler's sensors before falling to the ground again.

With the Chats du Mars spitting and writhing in discomfort, Sharada gave a glance at the Doctor as she rushed to shove her right foot back into her wayward sneaker. She saw all three of the damp felines begin to bolt and felt the Doctor's hand taking hers, pulling her along into a run the second she'd slipped her foot into the shoe.

"Where're they going?" Sharada asked him as they ran, just the two of them trailing after the cats as Pax had stayed by Elsie.

"To their ship," The Doctor replied, following the cats up a staircase, "And nice aim, where'd you know that thing about the sprinklers from?"

"I almost set the ones in my dorm at Uni off once," She answered, the cats disappearing through a doorway at the top of the steps, "And thanks. Why're they going to the roof?"

She saw the door was marked with a 'Roof Access' sign as they approached the door.

"Told you, they're going to their ship, leaving," The Doctor said, "Martian cats _really, really_ don't like water."

Water… huh. Sharada, as they came through the door, looked to the Doctor.

"What happened to that thing you had in-" She began to wonder, but paused completely from that train as she set foot on the roof. She didn't see a spaceship at all, just a giant cat disappearing into thin air.

"It's invisible," The Doctor said, regarding the ship on the rooftop, catching her look of sudden puzzlement. With a flick of his sonic screwdriver, the cats' ship became visible for a moment, and then flickered back out.

"Cool," She beamed at the sight, then non-sight. "Very 'Potter'. So they're just leaving, after, you know, all that 'stealing people' stuff? That was a bit easy…"

"Welll, they _would've_ came back," The Doctor said, invisible engines from the space ship beginning to start up, "_If_ I hadn't just changed the ship's setting and made it impossible for it to go anywhere but back to Mars where it came from by reversing the polarity of-"

"The neutron flow?" Sharada finished, her eyebrows raised with a questioning bright-eyed look that seemed to say 'seriously? I'm hearing this from him in real life? Wow'.

"Er… yeah," The Doctor grinned; who would've thought that he'd actually meet and take up someone on that Attack of the Graske offer? "So, TARDIS?" He looked to the fan as they stood atop the department store rooftop.

"In a sec, just wanna see this all," She said, looking in all directions at how gorgeous the city and the Thames looked, lit up by the moonlight and the city lights. As the invisible rockets sounded dim in the distance, she began to do that odd, kind of cute, absently 'quietly singing and half-dancing to some random song in her head' thing. For a second she felt like something out of a movie, this was beautiful.

"You're like a human iPod," The Doctor commented, coming over to where she'd moved to.

"Ooh, you know what I'd _love_," She said suddenly, "To go to one of those big concert…things, like how you know Rose saw Abba," She began.

"Oh, _not_ _Abba_, please don't say you want to go see Abba," The Doctor interrupted, cringing.

"Hey, I _Like_ Abba," She said, dramatically affronted, "And I wasn't going to, but maybe I will…"

"If you do I'm doing another fan thing, finding some more brilliant fans to-" He started.

"What is it with you guys and Abba?" She cut him off, playfully shoving him, "My dad always goes off about them like that when my mum brings them up, too."

"You know you're _not_ British, right?" The Doctor commented amusedly at how she'd said 'mum' like that.

"I _could_ be… maybe," She said innocently, then smiled energetically, "C'mon, _TARDIIIIS_!" She squealed loudly, drawing it out. She could be ridiculously loud and high pitched when she was exited, boudfully heading towards the roof access door.

"Raise your hands up in air and scream, we're finding our voice, following our dreams," Sharada continued on what she'd been singing before, though louder, as she darted down the first flight of stairs in the stairwell, "Cause we rock, we rock, we rock, we rock on…"

"Why am I really, really not at all surprised that you like Camp Rock?" The Doctor noticed.

"I _loved it_!" She exclaimed, squeeling, "It's just cheesy awesome musical Disney love! I wish I was one of those talented singer chicks, cept I kinda suck." She said, laughing. "But I would _love_ that, to be a performer, like an actress or a singer or something."

"You're really not bad," He said, from what he'd seen and heard. Not teen movie automatic superstar or reality show winner amazing, but on the better side of average, somewhere in the midst of decent.

She said nothing, though smiled deeply with the surprised and kind of achieved feeling when anyone complemented her, um, ever, on something talent-related.

"The louder we go, well the better we sound, 'cause we rock, we rock, we rock on…" She bounced dancily to beat of the music in her head that she sung.

* * *

"Knowing me, knowing you, there is nothing that we can do…" Upon saying goodbye to Pax and Elsie, who Sharada, not caring if the Doctor would mind or not, had mentioned something to them both about them coming with them if they wanted to, but they'd both refused anyways, coming up to the TARDIS Sharada was singing/humming, to the Doctor's dismay, a song of Abba's that she liked. "Knowing me, knowing you, breaking up is never…" She stopped, looking over to the Doctor as she noticed they were just standing there in front of the doors.

"What? What're you waiting for? Open it." She said, curiously. "If it's cuz I'm singing something Abba…"

"You open it," He nodded towards the doors of the blue Police Call Box.

"How'm I supposed to do that?" She asked, confused, "You didn't give me a key and the snap-ey thing only works for you, I tried before."

"Look in your pocket," He said.

"What?" She asked.

"Just… do it," He told her.

Digging her right hand into her front jeans pocket, her fingers came across something metallic and keylike.

"When did you do _that_?" She asked him, pulling out the golden object and holding it up.

"When I took back my sonic screwdriver," He said, "Surprised you didn't actually notice till now… are you ever going to open the door or are you just going to keep staring at the key like that?"

"Oh, yeah," She jerked out from what she'd been thinking as she held the golden TARDIS key in her hand, something involving Rose, Martha, and Donna, and slipped the key into the lock which it fit into.

"Are they the same key?" She asked him, coming through the doors.

"Is what the same key?" He asked, tossing his long brown coat onto one of the coral-like pillars of the console room.

"This key," Sharada stated, heading across the console room to grab her cell out of her purse which she'd left in some other part of the TARDIS, "Is it the same one as Martha and Donna and everyone had, _the_ TARDIS key, or have you just got a load of them stocked up for when you get a new-"

The floor felt like it dropped out from her feet suddenly, and she screamed in surprise, finding herself on the flooring with the force of the jolt as it continued to feel like the TARDIS was rapidly rocketing downward.

"_What is it doing_?!" Sharada yelled, clinging to the side of the console where the hand no longer was as she tried unsuccessfully to stand up with the plummeting motion.

"I don't know!" The Doctor, who had managed to stand, raced around the console controls trying to see what was going on with his TARDIS.

"Oh shit, shit, _shit_…" She swore repeatedly under her breath as the ship continued to feel as if it had just been dropped out of an airplane, nothing that the Doctor was doing seeming to have any effect.

**-- The End, TBC, ect. --**

* * *

**A/N: Yay, that's two complete stories in the Sharada Storm saga! And I'm still yet to finish Rift Rides, I know. And where are they going? Why is the TARDIS moving of its own accord? Well, stay tuned for the next fic and see! And I of course have no ownership of Camp Rock or Abba or any of their songs. I was listening to the Camp Rock soundtrack last night when I wrote that part... and the Abba is cuz I was on a small vacay with my family and we stopped at a Wal-Mart and I got the CR CD and a couple other CDs (they were Daughtry and Natasha Beddingfeild, and omg, how much does Used To from Daughtry remind me a hella much of Doctor/Donna?!) and my mom got this Abba hits thing and it was playing a bit in the car on the drive back towards the end, and I pretty much fell in love with Knowing Me Knowing You and a couple other songs on it.**

**This fic made easier to write by the magic of the lolcat translator at speaklolcat. And by lyrics on in CD jackets and online.  
**


End file.
